Leonardo
DiCaprio, with the aid of makeup, clothes, wigs and acting makes you
forget Leonardo DiCaprio the actor as he is John Edgar Hoover. Now how
many watching this film, say in their 40s, 50s and younger, will even
know who John Edgar Hoover was, or what he did, is another story and separating lies from the truth will be hard enough for those who did know him and what he did.

This
film, though directed by Clint Eastwood, belongs to DiCaprio and the
screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for writing "Milk",
and here tackles a complex man and complex problems.

By
his 20s Hoover was on his way to becoming the most powerful man in the
United States by heading the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He
initiated keeping finger printing files along with criminal science and
with his keeping personal files of powerful people from Presidents, and
their wives, to such things as wiretapping and blackmail though he would
never call it that. For almost 50 years he bend stories so that he is
the hero in the capture of Dillinger, and other criminals, along with
making himself the defender of America against communism, criminals and
all things against this country. His work story is told in a series of relating his memoirs to various young men.

What is not told in his memoirs is about his background, his being a mommy's
boy in addition to a sex life or lack of one, which is never verified
in the film one way or another. He lived with his mother in her house
until she died who told him she would rather he kill himself than he be a
'daffodill'. I have never heard this expression---a pansy, yes--to
describe a homosexual but then the film never states that he is a
homosexual. He has a lifetime companion in a young man he hires, Clyde Tolson played by Armie Hammer, who becomes his right hand man. Was their relationship strictly
platonic? At one point they both declare their love for each other but
it seems to be a sexless love. At the beginning of the film Edgar
proposes to Helen Gandy,
played by Naomi Watts, and when she turns him down he offers her a job
as his secretary which she accepts, keeping all his secrets and
remaining single. He also talks about having sex with a Hollywood
actress and yet he runs when Ginger Roger's mother asks him to dance. He
is afraid of women except on a working level.

I
am not a fan of Clint Eastwood as a director and, as in most of his
films, this gets slow in spots and runs about 15-20 minutes too long.
Both Judi Dench, who plays Hoover's mother, is excellent and will probably get an Oscar nomination as will Armie Hammer.

Oh yes, while the aging makeup works well for Dicaprio and Watts it is overdone for Hammer.

I
don't think the older generations will buy the 'history' in the film
nor do I think the younger generations will be interested in it but all
will be interested in the 'love' story.